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John Pistole, head of the Transportation Security Administration, focuses on the riskiest travelers rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach to aviation security. He leaves office Dec. 31 to become president of Anderson University in Indiana.(Photo: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY)
WASHINGTON – The head of the Transportation Security Administration, preparing to leave his job at the end of this month, said Tuesday that focusing scrutiny on the riskiest travelers was the biggest change in his four years in office.
John Pistole told USA TODAY the agency has adopted two dozen practices for risk-based security. The most prominent aspect of the strategy is Pre-check, which provides expedited screening for travelers who have previously provided some information about themselves to the agency.
"I would like to think it is TSA's legacy rather than mine, but clearly we have made a change from one-size-fits-all to risk-based security," Pistole said. "We've moved to what I like to think is world-class security and to do it in a more professional, accepting way with the traveling public in a partnership rather than what was confrontational previously."
Pistole has been named president of Anderson University, a Christian college in Indiana where he and his family have long ties. He leaves public service after leading TSA and spending 26 years with the FBI, where he rose to deputy director.
"It's a new chapter, and I'm looking forward to the challenges and opportunities of leading what I think is a great institution of higher learning," said Pistole, who graduated from Anderson with his wife, Kathy Harp. Both his parents graduated from Anderson, too.
Pistole largely calmed complaints that TSA bought equipment that didn't work and that its officers groped passengers. Lawmakers of both parties and the secretary of Homeland Security praised his service.
TSA began offering Pre-check, the expedited screening for frequent fliers, in October 2011. It expanded to include young and old travelers, airline crews and members of the military.
Now TSA is offering general enrollment with an application answering some biographical questions, fingerprints and an $85 fee for five years. About 750,000 travelers have signed up, and TSA is working with private contractors to sign up more participants next year.
At the same time, TSA is reducing the number of travelers chosen randomly, or after being swabbed or sniffed by dogs for explosives, to go through the swifter Pre-check security line. Pistole said the agency constantly works to strike a balance between screening and moving travelers efficiently through checkpoint lines.
"People who have experienced Pre-check view us in a different light than before the program existed," Pistole said. "Those are all positive things, which allow us to be more efficient at the checkpoint, where we're not spending inordinate time to determine that a 95-year-old great-grandmother is probably not a terrorist risk."
Liquids remain a challenge. TSA have limited liquids to 3.4-ounce containers since a bomb plot in 2006.
Europe is now experimenting with equipment to scan liquids for explosives, but the concern so far has been too many false-positive results, which could gum up checkpoint lines.
Pistole said he discussed liquids last week while meeting with his counterparts from the European Union, Canada and Australia. Regulators are working with manufacturers to develop machines that detect explosives quickly and accurately in liquids, aerosols and gels.
"That's the challenge," Pistole said. "I don't have a specific time frame."
TSA found a record number of guns at checkpoints this year – 2,097 through Dec. 15 – despite repeated warnings that weapons may be packed, only unloaded and only in checked bags. TSA fines range to $11,000 and local police could arrest the traveler.
"Know what you're packing, especially if you're packing a weapon," Pistole said. "Even though you may have a permit, that doesn't apply to checkpoint security."
Nov. 1 was the anniversary of the first TSA officer killed in the line of duty. Gerardo Hernandez was one of three TSA officers shot at a checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport. A gunman had walked into the airport and targeted the officers.
In the aftermath, Pistole worked with local law enforcement agencies to improve emergency communications, install more panic alarms in airports and train workers how to respond when someone is shooting.
Pistole said he returns to Anderson University with a sense of God's calling after being given a second chance in his youth.
Despite being raised in a Christian home and being baptized at 12, the ramrod-straight administrator said he started behaving badly as a teenager. When he was a senior in high school, he broke his neck in a car crash.
"The accident was a wake-up call for me," Pistole said. "I really had a sense of God saying, 'John, don't you know how richly I've blessed you -- physically, spiritually?'"
When leaders of Anderson University contacted him, Pistole said, it felt like God calling.
"I'm looking forward to some exciting things in this next chapter," Pistole said. "My job is to be obedient and leave the results to Him."
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